Breaking the Bow

What an idea...freaked out a lot but finished it nonetheless...you always remind yourself to reinvent and reinvent till you drop down dead...

Tell Me a Story

Rupa Bajwa's "Sari Shop" remains one of the best debut by an Indian writer...According to me, her second novel is better and the moment I finished it, there is a lump in my throat...the back jacket photograph of the lonely bicycle is taken by Santanu Rana whose work ia getting better by leaps and bounds...the other photographs are taken by me on various occasions with some touches here and there...

Highway 39

I am posting after a long period of time...it is not as if I am doing less work...infact doing more, but I feel very lazy in uploading stuff...this one is a bit different from the earlier ones as I have tried to incorporate a canvas paint look...also I think the colours are very important...the book, by the way, is a gem...it gives a very authentic feel of one of the most neglected part of India...

BT Road / Bibar

It is a challenge to do this one and I feel saibalda's photos inside the outline are truly fabulous indeed...perhaps i will do a kalkut translation one day...

24 Akbar Road

Congress and Warhol! an unusual combination that I like!!! Initially, it was quite difficult to crack this one and thought that this will be another boring yawn-inducing non-fiction cover but once I and my editor, Nandita unboxed it, it was fun to work on this...I hope everybody likes it...Hachette India has tremendous production values and I think they will do proper justice with this one...

The Nothing Man

This cover has the picture of my close friend sutirth (www.sutirth.com) on the cover...shot in my room with modest lighting it came out very well...i thought of using it earlier as well but it was not working out...a new cover, a new idea and i think it fits in perfectly...

Mice in Men

This cover was a lot of hard work within a short period of time but then both I and saugata wanted a fun cover for beautifully-crafted poignant bunch of stories...there was a lot of brainstorming and we were actually dealing in cliched images...however, with just the graphic treatment, a refreshing cover emerged...@saugata: lets make a film...

Harper Collins Film Series

Here is the first, second and third of the HarperCollins film series cover that I am doing...Now there are other monographs to come... even mithunda is not left out...dance dance...

The Garden of Solitude

This wonderful photograph is taken by my colleague, Santanu Rana whose photographs are a delight to watch (www.santanurana.wordspress.com). My job was introduce the frosty silence of Kashmir...the ethereal but unnerving lull before the storm...This book, written by Siddhartha Gigoo, is published by Rupa.

Following Fish

Wow!!! What a little gem of a book!!! I did three options...the one with the spread got selected...

Lost and Found

This one is really a madcap of a book which I enjoyed doing...I wish I had bit more time to get more elements in it...however, the hinge of the cover is the inverted house which came to me suddenly while I was aimless watching birds on the terrace...so too the letter "o" of the word "lost" which is floating aimlessly along the edge of the cover...

The Slayer of Kamsa

It has been a long time since I posted something...It is not that I have been doing less work but somehow I didn't upload those stuff...Here is one book which took a lot of time because of the intricate decorations that is part of this signature series...I hope it will create a lot of impact in the bookstore...saugata has promised the best of available production embellishments, so as usual, need to thank him again...

Come, Before Evening Falls

One of the covers where I freaked out...It was done 3 weeks ago...it is a mixed media cover...I put in so many things and something magical came out of the mix...raw colour brushstrokes...small bits of scraped pictures, small hand drawn nuggets all adding up...

Roadrunner

I am adding a cover after a hiatus of about 4 months...did a lot of covers though but was simply too lazy to put them up...this one is a very interesting one with stacked pictures giving it a feel of visuals rushing at the audience...the pictures are beautifully shot by Dilip himself and they do present a very candid America. I introduced certain small elements within the cover by drawing them...it broke the monotonous pattern of horizontality...One good thing about being a cover designer is that you get to read a manuscript long before it comes as a book form...this one absolutely stunned me with its tone and range...

A Rejected Cover - 1

A cover which is rejected. A weave of 5 photographs, all of whom are taken by Saibal Das in various parts of the country...the red dots are dye cuts which could have looked striking as well...

The Curious Case of 221B

This one has a minimalist treatment with a dye cut in the middle part through which the shadow of Holmes and Watson creep through. The background has also got a special treatment with a silvery shade. One of the books best seen when taken in and felt by hand. I hope the Harper guys do a great production job as they had done in Arzee. I am curious to see this one once it is out.

Shorts 1

This is a contribution to Drigangchoo, a new magazine being launched at JU. This is a short piece done in an old style since then abandoned by me ... i am now trying out a different graphic style for my graphic novel, which seems to be forever in production ... still i want to feel satisfied myself before publishing anything ...

Arzee the Dwarf

Chandrahas wanted a different shot which was also beautiful (somehow more ethereal!) but i thought that the last one in this line of options here would do better... so armed with the camera i spend three days on the streets of Kolkata and Chandannagar to create an ambience which should pass off as Mumbai...the hand that lit the cigarette is an accidental shot which was there way back from my JU days...the picture of the goat is courtesy francis mascarenhas, a young mumbai lad who is a very talented photographer, and whose work can be seen here at http://shadows77.deviantart.com ... the highrises are distorted kolkata, the slums from my hometown ... it shows how india is so common in an uncanny way...i am really proud of doing this cover... it took a lot of time and saugata, chandrahaas really provided me with imputs that made the cover what it is today... other editors would have put it off but kudos to saugata for his decision to stick to it ... there is a bit of irrational in the cover which is like the book as well...this one is hell of a book ... mark my words ... chandrahaas will go a long way.

Nothing is Blue

Have I captured the brilliant premise of this novel? I am just concerned with that and will be digging for answers for a month or so. There is also a site designed by me and developed by Ritwick: www.nothingisblue.com

Socialism is Great

A cover i think I will cherish! I need to thank Saugata for giving me this one...do keep it coming.